Penny Wong (SA, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Foreign Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you to Senator Kovacic. I would make the point that obviously we are deeply concerned about inflation. You would have heard the Prime Minister, the Treasurer, the Minister for Finance and others being very clear about why the inflation challenge is the primary focus of our government and why we are seeking to roll out cost-of-living relief in a way that doesn't add to inflation. Inflation certainly is more persistent around the world than we would like. We recognise that inflation is moderating in our economy, but obviously we are not immune to the global trends.

I would make the obvious political point, in response to the obvious political question, that the decisions of the Reserve Bank are decisions of the Reserve Bank. It is independent and it makes its own decisions. What we can do in government is to continue to invest in the future to address inflation and to seek to make progress on those things where we are able to. There is some welcome progress—not as much as we all would want, but there is welcome progress. We know that quarterly inflation peaked in the March quarter of last year, before the election. We also have the first surplus in 15 years, because of our responsible economic management. There was a $100 billion turnaround which resulted in a $22.1 billion surplus for the last financial year as compared with forecasts inherited from the former government. It's the biggest nominal budget improvement in Australia's history.